Thomas S
Traveller
26 comments
Posted 16 years ago
Not a question, just some information about crossing from Greece into Turkey, as the passport-checking procedure I experienced recently was somewhat different from the process I've seen described here.
What happens is this - in the middle of the night, greek police officers will wake you up and ask for your passport. They'll take a look at it, and will then walk away with the passport and the train begins to move again. After some time, they'll return and give you your passport back, and then, when you cross over into Turkey, the same thing will happen with Turkish officers (with the added bonus of maybe having your backpack checked, meaning you'll be woken up five times in total).
I'm just posting this to inform people - most desciptions of this border-crossing seemed to involve getting out of the train and getting some kind of visa, but apparently, this has changed. Don't fear the famous fake-police-officers-in-real-uniforms-scam, you'll get your passport back.
admin
Traveller
203 comments
Hi,
Interesting: the situation in Eastern Europe is rather similar; passports can also be taken for the duration of the journey, and returned just in advance of arrival, which is a bit nerve-inducing until you realise that everyone else is in the same boat (sic).
The fake border police can be recognised, though. If you look closely, you'll see that the stitching and general finish are just not to the kind of high quality spec that you'd expect.
iaink
[quote]Not a question, just some information about crossing from Greece into Turkey, as the passport-checking procedure I experienced recently was somewhat different from the process I've seen described here.
What happens is this - in the middle of the night, greek police officers will wake you up and ask for your passport. They'll take a look at it, and will then walk away with the passport and the train begins to move again. After some time, they'll return and give you your passport back, and then, when you cross over into Turkey, the same thing will happen with Turkish officers (with the added bonus of maybe having your backpack checked, meaning you'll be woken up five times in total).
I'm just posting this to inform people - most desciptions of this border-crossing seemed to involve getting out of the train and getting some kind of visa, but apparently, this has changed. Don't fear the famous fake-police-officers-in-real-uniforms-scam, you'll get your passport back.[/quote]